#minashika

Cloaks!

“This,” Ino tells him, “iseither going to be a disaster or a massiveclusterfuck.”

“I hate you,” Shikamaru grumbles,though he doesn’t mean it. He glances across the room, to where Minato is talkingto his genin team with a cheerful smile, the sunlight catching on his hair andturning it to gold. It makes his swallow hard, and his next words are a littlemore strangled than he would like. “And aren’t you supposed to be the romanticone?”

“Clusterfucks can be romantic,”Choji says sagely, like he’s sharing some great bit of wisdom, and it makes Inolaugh, leaning on his shoulder.

“I suppose,” she says, airy andstill definitely judging him. “Fine, whatever. At least you make a cute couple.”

Choji snickers. “And one that’s fullof headaches,” he points out, and Shikamaru groans, thumping his head backagainst the wall. A month in the past and he’s already had to step in and personally save the idiot genius’s lifethree times. He’s pretty sure he’s starting to get ulcers.

“How can someone so smart be so ridiculous?” he laments.

Ino and Choji trade speakinglooks that entirely exclude Shikamaru, which, rude.

“Geniuses? Ridiculous?” Ino asks, full of faux astonishment.

“Never,” Choji agrees solemnly.

Shikamaru really, really hateshis friends.

Before he can tell them that,though, laughter draws his attention, and he looks back towards the window justin time to catch Minato turning, looking back at Shikamaru like he wants toshare his joy. He holds out a hand in gentle invitation, and it’s like someone closeda hand around Shikamaru's heart and squeezed.

“I know he’s trouble,” Shikamarusays quietly, and he’s never meant anything more. “I know all of this is trouble. And I don’t care.”

Ino and Choji trade glances again.Then, as one, they grab his shoulders and propel him forward across the room witha hard shove.

:’D

So apparently I like this idea a lot oh my god. 

This is all massively troublesome, damn it, and Shikamaru only has himself toblame.

Somehow, it was a hell of a loteasier to disregard what flee on sightorders mean in the rush that came beforehand, in the uneasy alliance with aman who should have been dead several dozen times over by now. In seeing thelines in Sasuke's face from too many sleepless nights, the way Sakura wasactivating her Strength of a Hundred Seal, the impossible determination in theslant of Naruto's mouth and the fire in his eyes as he said this last attempt was too close, Shika. We’regoing to send you somewhere you won't be in danger. Just keep your head downand you’ll be fine.

Right. Head down. Fine. Which wouldhave been a hell of a lot easier if he hadn’t landed smack dab in the middle ofan alternate universe’s battlefield, practically on top of the Hokage.

Not his Hokage, because that would be too easy. And also not Hokage yet, so when Shikamaru had draggedhimself off the ground and blurted, “Yondaime-sama!” in front of a squad of Iwanin, it was close enough to spilling an S-rank secret that the Yondaime hadimmediately reacted.

The Iwa-nin are dead. Shikamaru gotluckier. Slightly.

“Sorry,” Minato says almostbashfully, leaning over him to check the knots tying his hands. “Is that tootight? Can you feel your fingers?”

“I’d feel them better if you untied me,” Shikamaru complains, andwonders where the hell Sai landed. It’s the ANBU commander’s job to keep himsafe, and he could really use some backup right now. And gods, if Shikamaru iscounting on Sai to get him out ofthis mess, things have really gone south.

Minato smiles like it’s a joke,checks Shikamaru's feet, and drops back into his seat across the smallcampfire. “We’ll be back in Konoha in a few days,” he says, like it’s any sortof consolation. “If you really don’t mean any harm, T & I will let you goin a day or two after that. You’ll be all right. All we want to know is how yougot that information in the first place. Only the Sandaime, the Daimyo, and I aresupposed to know.”

Being targeted to havinginformation that other people want is becoming something of a pattern, Shikamaruthinks, faintly despairing. That’s what got him into this whole mess in thefirst place, and if he’d realized how troublesome it would be, he’d have leftthat damned scroll where he found it.

With a groan, he flops back tolie on the grass, staring balefully up at the stars, and it’s hardly comfortablewith his hands tied behind him, but there aren’t really a lot of other options.He could definitely get out of the ropes if he tried, could probably get past Minatoif he had the element of surprise on his side, but there's no way he’d be ableto escape the Yellow Flash without help. More help than Sai, at least. They're bothsome of the best, but the Yellow Flash is better.

“I hate my life,” Shikamaru tellsthe stars.

There's a quiet chuckle, andthen Minato leans over him again, blue eyes warm in the shifting firelight. He danglesa ration bar over Shikamaru's face, swinging it lightly, and says, “It mightlook better after a meal?”

Shikamaru sighs, but Minato hasa point. He’s pretty useless right now, but if he can get the chance—

Well. For now being here isdefinitely safer than being in his Konoha, what with a band of very dedicatedpriests trying to kill him and retrieve the scroll that bonded itself to him.

…Shikamaru hates that that is areasonable sentence that he can say and understand. It’s all Naruto's faultsomehow, he’s sure of it.

“Thanks,” he says, not quitegrudgingly, and starts to pull himself up—

Long, callused fingers press achunk of mealy protein against his lips, and Shikamaru is so startled his mouthopens automatically. Minato gives him a cheerful smile, settling next to him,and damn it, but Shikamaru's always lowkey thought of him as gorgeous, but thatwas before he knew his hands smelled like honing oil and a trace of mint.

“Sorry,” Minato tells himsincerely. “I can't risk untying you right now, but I can still feed you. No needto be rude about it, right?”

Shikamaru doesn’t quite swallowhis tongue along with the ration bar, but it’s a near thing. And—maybe he’sspent too long around Choji, who takes food veryseriously, but feeding another person is notwhat you do unless you mean it.

Oh no, Shikamaru thinks, staring at the man who killed twelve shinobiin the space of a few seconds, who had him tied up and pinned to the groundbefore he could even summon his shadows. Who’s sitting close now, theirshoulders practically brushing.

Shikamaru isn’t exactly astranger to sexual attraction—he’s been dealing with both Ino and Sai for years now, and their ongoing, insistentattempts to wrangle him into another threesome—but this…

(god fucking dammit, kat.) When Shikamaru arrives, there’s a familiar ‘oh, fuck’ twisting in his stomach, that thing that’s always told him when something’s about to go off the damn rails, and– Eyes blue as the sky on a cloudless day with none of their warmth analyze him, burn into him like a brand, judge him down to his soul… And gentle ever so slightly when they see the headband tied around his arm.

Shikamaru…. Is lost. In more ways than one. It’s been several seconds of complete silence, but eventually he manages. “Yondaime-sama-”